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Author Lopez-Honorez, L.; Mena, O.; Moline, A.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Vincent, A.C.
Title The 21 cm signal and the interplay between dark matter annihilations and astrophysical processes Type Journal Article
Year 2016 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 08 Issue 8 Pages 004 - 40pp
Keywords dark matter theory; intergalactic media; reionization
Abstract Future dedicated radio interferometers, including HERA and SKA, are very promising tools that aim to study the epoch of reionization and beyond via measurements of the 21 cm signal from neutral hydrogen. Dark matter (DM) annihilations into charged particles change the thermal history of the Universe and, as a consequence, affect the 21 cm signal. Accurately predicting the effect of DM strongly relies on the modeling of annihilations inside halos. In this work, we use up-to-date computations of the energy deposition rates by the products from DM annihilations, a proper treatment of the contribution from DM annihilations in halos, as well as values of the annihilation cross section allowed by the most recent cosmological measurements from the Planck satellite. Given current uncertainties on the description of the astrophysical processes driving the epochs of reionization, X-ray heating and Lyman-alpha pumping, we find that disentangling DM signatures from purely astrophysical effects, related to early-time star formation processes or late-time galaxy X-ray emissions, will be a challenging task. We conclude that only annihilations of DM particles with masses of similar to 100 MeV, could leave an unambiguous imprint on the 21 cm signal and, in particular, on the 21cm power spectrum. This is in contrast to previous, more optimistic results in the literature, which have claimed that strong signatures might also be present even for much higher DM masses. Additional measurements of the 21cm signal at different cosmic epochs will be crucial in order to break the strong parameter degeneracies between DM annihilations and astrophysical effects and undoubtedly single out a DM imprint for masses different from similar to 100 MeV.
Address [Lopez-Honorez, Laura] Vrije Univ Brussel, Theoret Natuurkunde, Pl Laan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium, Email: llopezho@vub.ac.be;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000389859100050 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 2899
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Author Moline, A.; Schewtschenko, J.A.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Boehm, C.; Baugh, C.M.
Title Isotropic extragalactic flux from dark matter annihilations: lessons from interacting dark matter scenarios Type Journal Article
Year 2016 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 08 Issue 8 Pages 069 - 23pp
Keywords dark matter simulations; dark matter theory; gamma ray theory
Abstract The extragalactic gamma-ray and neutrino emission may have a contribution from dark matter (DM) annihilations. In the case of discrepancies between observations and standard predictions, one could infer the DM pair annihilation cross section into cosmic rays by studying the shape of the energy spectrum. So far all analyses of the extragalactic DM signal have assumed the standard cosmological model (ACDM) as the underlying theory. However, there are alternative DM scenarios where the number of low-mass objects is significantly suppressed. Therefore the characteristics of the gamma-ray and neutrino emission in these models may differ from ACDM as a result. Here we show that the extragalactic isotropic signal in these alternative models has a similar energy dependence to that in ACDM, but the overall normalisation is reduced. The similarities between the energy spectra combined with the flux suppression could lead one to misinterpret possible evidence for models beyond ACDM as being due to CDM particles annihilating with a much weaker cross section than expected.
Address [Moline, Angeles] Univ Tecn Lisboa, Inst Super Tecn, CFTP, Av Rovisco Pais 1, P-1049001 Lisbon, Portugal, Email: maria.moline@ist.utl.pt;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000389859100053 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 2900
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Author Di Bari, P.; Ludl, P.O.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.
Title Unifying leptogenesis, dark matter and high-energy neutrinos with right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal Type Journal Article
Year 2016 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 11 Issue 11 Pages 044 - 41pp
Keywords dark matter theory; leptogenesis; physics of the early universe; ultra high energy photons and neutrinos
Abstract We revisit a model in which neutrino masses and mixing are described by a two right-handed (RH) neutrino seesaw scenario, implying a strictly hierarchical light neutrino spectrum. A third decoupled RH neutrino, N-DM with mass M-DM, plays the role of cold dark matter (DM) and is produced by the mixing with a source RH neutrino, Ns with mass M-S, induced by Higgs portal interactions. The same interactions are also responsible for N-DM decays. We discuss in detail the constraints coming from DM abundance and stability conditions showing that in the hierarchical case, for M-DM >> M-S, there is an allowed window on M-DM values necessarily implying a contribution, from DM decays, to the high-energy neutrino flux recently detected by IceCube. We also show how the model can explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe via leptogenesis in the quasi-degenerate limit. In this case, the DM mass should be within the range 300 GeV less than or similar to M-S < M-DM < 10PeV. We discuss the specific properties of this high-energy neutrino flux and show the predicted event spectrum for two exemplary cases. Although DM decays, with a relatively hard spectrum, cannot account for all the IceCube high-energy data, we illustrate how this extra source of high-energy neutrinos could reasonably explain some potential features in the observed spectrum. In this way, this represents a unified scenario for leptogenesis and DM that could be tested during the next years with more high-energy neutrino events.
Address [Di Bari, Pasquale; Ludl, Patrick Otto] Univ Southampton, Phys & Astron, Southampton SO17 1BJ, Hants, England, Email: P.Di-Bari@soton.ac.uk;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000397734100044 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 3020
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Author Garani, R.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.
Title Dark matter in the Sun: scattering off electrons vs nucleons Type Journal Article
Year 2017 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 05 Issue 5 Pages 007 - 41pp
Keywords dark matter detectors; dark matter theory; neutrino detectors; stars
Abstract The annihilation of dark matter (DM) particles accumulated in the Sun could produce a flux of neutrinos, which is potentially detectable with neutrino detectors/telescopes and the DM elastic scattering cross section can be constrained. Although the process of DM capture in astrophysical objects like the Sun is commonly assumed to be due to interactions only with nucleons, there are scenarios in which tree-level DM couplings to quarks are absent, and even if loop-induced interactions with nucleons are allowed, scatterings off electrons could be the dominant capture mechanism. We consider this possibility and study in detail all the ingredients necessary to compute the neutrino production rates from DM annihilationsin the Sun (capture, annihilation and evaporation rates) for velocity-independent and isotropic, velocity-dependent and isotropic and momentum-dependent scattering cross sections for DM interactions with electrons and compare them with the results obtained for the case of interactions with nucleons. Moreover, we improve the usual calculations in a number of ways and provide analytical expressions in three appendices. Interestingly, we find that the evaporation mass in the case of interactions with electrons could be below the GeV range, depending on the high-velocity tail of the DM distribution in the Sun, which would open a new mass window for searching for this type of scenarios.
Address [Garani, Raghuveer] Univ Bonn, Bethe Ctr Theoret Phys, Nussallee 12, D-53115 Bonn, Germany, Email: garani@th.physik.uni-bonn.de;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000402878200007 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 3175
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Bhattacharya, A.; Esmaili, A.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Sarcevic, I.
Title Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data Type Journal Article
Year 2017 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 07 Issue 7 Pages 027 - 36pp
Keywords dark matter theory; neutrino astronomy; neutrino detectors; ultra high energy photons and neutrinos
Abstract After the first four years of data taking, the IceCube neutrino telescope has observed 54 high-energy starting events (HESE) with deposited energies between 20TeV and 2PeV. The background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos is expected to be of about 20 events, all below 100TeV, thus pointing towards the astrophysical origin of about 8 events per year in that data set. However, their precise origin remains unknown. Here, we perform a detailed analysis of this event sample (considering simultaneously the energy, hemisphere and topology of the events) by assuming two contributions for the signal events: an isotropic power-law flux and a flux from decaying heavy dark matter. We fit the mass and lifetime of the dark matter and the normalization and spectral index of an isotropic power-law flux, for various decay channels of dark matter. We find that a significant contribution from dark matter decay is always slightly favored, either to explain the excess below 100TeV, as in the case of decays to quarks or, as in the case of neutrino channels, to explain the three multi-PeV events. Also, we consider the possibility to interpret all the data by dark matter decays only, considering various combinations of two decay channels. We show that the decaying dark matter scenario provides a better fit to HESE data than the isotropic power-law flux.
Address [Bhattacharya, Atri] Univ Liege, Space Sci Technol & Astrophys Res STAR Inst, Bat B5a, B-4000 Liege, Belgium, Email: a.bhattacharya@ulg.ac.be;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000406420500009 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 3243
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Author Escudero, M.; Lopez-Honorez, L.; Mena, O.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Villanueva-Domingo, P.
Title A fresh look into the interacting dark matter scenario Type Journal Article
Year 2018 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 06 Issue 6 Pages 007 - 35pp
Keywords particle physics – cosmology connection; dwarfs galaxies; reionization; dark matter theory
Abstract The elastic scattering between dark matter particles and radiation represents an attractive possibility to solve a number of discrepancies between observations and standard cold dark matter predictions, as the induced collisional damping would imply a suppression of small-scale structures. We consider this scenario and confront it with measurements of the ionization history of the Universe at several redshifts and with recent estimates of the counts of Milky Way satellite galaxies. We derive a conservative upper bound on the dark matter photon elastic scattering cross section of sigma gamma DM < 8 x 10(-10) sigma(T) (m(DM)/GeV) at 95% CL, about one order of magnitude tighter than previous constraints from satellite number counts. Due to the strong degeneracies with astrophysical parameters, the bound on the dark matter-photon scattering cross section derived here is driven by the estimate of the number of Milky Way satellite galaxies. Finally, we also argue that future 21 cm probes could help in disentangling among possible non-cold dark matter candidates, such as interacting and warm dark matter scenarios. Let us emphasize that bounds of similar magnitude to the ones obtained here could be also derived for models with dark matter-neutrino interactions and would be as constraining as the tightest limits on such scenarios.
Address [Escudero, Miguel; Mena, Olga; Palomares-Ruiz, Sergio; Villanueva-Domingo, Pablo] Univ Valencia, CSIC, Inst Fis Corpuscular IFIC, Apartado Correos 22085, E-46071 Valencia, Spain, Email: miguel.escudero@ific.uv.es;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000434381500001 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 3612
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Jeong, Y.S.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Reno, M.H.; Sarcevic, I.
Title Probing secret interactions of eV-scale sterile neutrinos with the diffuse supernova neutrino background Type Journal Article
Year 2018 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 06 Issue 6 Pages 019 - 43pp
Keywords cosmological neutrinos; neutrino theory; supernova neutrinos
Abstract Sterile neutrinos with mass in the eV-scale and large mixings of order theta(0) similar or equal to 0.1 could explain some anomalies found in short-baseline neutrino oscillation data. Here, we revisit a neutrino portal scenario in which eV-scale sterile neutrinos have self-interactions via a new gauge vector boson phi. Their production in the early Universe via mixing with active neutrinos can be suppressed by the induced effective potential in the sterile sector. We study how different cosmological observations can constrain this model, in terms of the mass of the new gauge boson, M-phi, and its coupling to sterile neutrinos, g(s). Then, we explore how to probe part of the allowed parameter space of this particular model with future observations of the diffuse supernova neutrino background by the Hyper-Kamiokande and DUNE detectors. For M-phi similar to 5 – 10 keV and g(s) similar to 10-(4) – 10(-2), as allowed by cosmological constraints, we find that interactions of diffuse supernova neutrinos with relic sterile neutrinos on their way to the Earth would result in significant dips in the neutrino spectrum which would produce unique features in the event spectra observed in these detectors.
Address [Jeong, Yu Seon; Sarcevic, Ina] Univ Arizona, Dept Phys, 1118 E 4th St, Tucson, AZ 85704 USA, Email: ysjeong@email.arizona.edu;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000434991300006 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 3613
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Arguelles, C.A.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Schneider, A.; Wille, L.; Yuan, T.L.
Title Unified atmospheric neutrino passing fractions for large-scale neutrino telescopes Type Journal Article
Year 2018 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 07 Issue 7 Pages 047 - 41pp
Keywords neutrino detectors; neutrino experiments; ultra high energy photons and neutrinos
Abstract The atmospheric neutrino passing fraction, or self-veto, is defined as the probability for an atmospheric neutrino not to be accompanied by a detectable muon from the same cosmic-ray air shower. Building upon previous work, we propose a redefinition of the passing fractions by unifying the treatment for muon and electron neutrinos. Several approximations have also been removed. This enables performing detailed estimations of the uncertainties in the passing fractions from several inputs: muon losses, cosmic-ray spectrum, hadronic-interaction models and atmosphere-density profiles. We also study the passing fractions under variations of the detector configuration: depth, surrounding medium and muon veto trigger probability. The calculation exhibits excellent agreement with passing fractions obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, we provide a general software framework to implement this veto technique for all large-scale neutrino observatories.
Address [Arguelle, Carlos A.] MIT, Dept Phys, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA, Email: caad@mit.edu;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000439590200003 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 3677
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Bhattacharya, A.; Esmaili, A.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Sarcevic, I.
Title Update on decaying and annihilating heavy dark matter with the 6-year IceCube HESE data Type Journal Article
Year 2019 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 03 Issue 5 Pages 051 - 30pp
Keywords dark matter theory; ultra high energy photons and neutrinos
Abstract In view of the IceCube's 6-year high-energy starting events (HESE) sample, we revisit the possibility that the updated data may be better explained by a combination of neutrino fluxes from dark matter decay and an isotropic astrophysical power-law than purely by the latter. We find that the combined two-component flux qualitatively improves the fit to the observed data over a purely astrophysical one, and discuss how these updated fits compare against a similar analysis done with the 4-year HESE data. We also update fits involving dark matter decay via multiple channels, without any contribution from the astrophysical flux. We find that a DM-only explanation is not excluded by neutrino data alone. Finally, we also consider the possibility of a signal from dark matter annihilations and perform analogous analyses to the case of decays, commenting on its implications.
Address [Bhattacharya, Atri] Univ Liege, Space Sci Technol & Astrophys Res STAR Inst, Bat B5a, B-4000 Liege, Belgium, Email: a.bhattacharya@ulg.ac.be;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000469808500001 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 4038
Permanent link to this record
 

 
Author Lopez-Honorez, L.; Mena, O.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Villanueva-Domingo, P.; Witte, S.J.
Title Variations in fundamental constants at the cosmic dawn Type Journal Article
Year 2020 Publication Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Abbreviated Journal J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.
Volume 06 Issue 6 Pages 026 - 25pp
Keywords cosmology of theories beyond the SM; particle physics – cosmology connection; reionization
Abstract The observation of space-time variations in fundamental constants would provide strong evidence for the existence of new light degrees of freedom in the theory of Nature. Robustly constraining such scenarios requires exploiting observations that span different scales and probe the state of the Universe at different epochs. In the context of cosmology, both the cosmic microwave background and the Lyman-a forest have proven to be powerful tools capable of constraining variations in electromagnetism, however at the moment there do not exist cosmological probes capable of bridging the gap between recombination and reionization. In the near future, radio telescopes will attempt to measure the 21 cm transition of neutral hydrogen during the epochs of reionization and the cosmic dawn (and potentially the tail end of the dark ages); being inherently sensitive to electromagnetic phenomena, these experiments will offer a unique perspective on space-time variations of the fine-structure constant and the electron mass. We show here that large variations in these fundamental constants would produce features on the 21 cm power spectrum that may be distinguishable from astrophysical uncertainties. Furthermore, we forecast the sensitivity for the Square Kilometer Array, and show that the 21 cm power spectrum may be able to constrain variations at the level of O(10(-3)).
Address [Lopez-Honorez, Laura] Univ Libre Bruxelles, Serv Phys Theor, CP225, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium, Email: llopezho@ulb.ac.be;
Corporate Author Thesis
Publisher (up) Iop Publishing Ltd Place of Publication Editor
Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN 1475-7516 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes WOS:000551875400049 Approved no
Is ISI yes International Collaboration yes
Call Number IFIC @ pastor @ Serial 4473
Permanent link to this record